COMPARISON

There are various ways of making comparisons in English:

• Using a comparative adjective:

a) If the adjective (describing word) is one syllable, you can add -er:

small – smaller; big – bigger; nice – nicer.

b) If the adjective has two syllables, but ends in -y, you can change the end to -ier:

lucky – luckier; happy – happier.

c) With other English adjectives of two syllables and more, you can’t change their endings. Instead, you should use more + adjective:

handsome – more handsome; beautiful – more beautiful.

d) When you compare two things, use ‘than:

I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. 

e) some adjectives are irregular and change form when you make comparisons:

good – better; bad – worse; far – further.

f) We can soften a comparative adjective using a little or a bit. A bit is less formal:

She feels a little more confident now that she’s given her first public performance.

• Using a superlative adjective 

a) If the adjective (describing word) is one syllable, you can add -est:

small – the smallest; big – the biggest; nice – the nicest .

b) If the adjective has two syllables, but ends in -y, you can change the end to -iest:

lucky – the luckiest; happy – the happiest.

c) With other English adjectives of two syllables and more, you can’t change their endings. Instead, you should use the most + adjective:

handsome – the most handsome; beautiful – the most beautiful.

d) With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use "-est" or "most":

quiet – the quietest/most quiet; clever –  the cleverest/most clever

e) As well, some adjectives are irregular and change form: 

good, better, best old, older/elder, oldest/eldest

• Using the structure not as … as to make comparisons between things which aren’t equal:

Holly is not as fast on the tennis court as she used to be. 

a) We can also use not so. Note that this variant is less common nowadays:

The cycling was good but not so hard as the cross country skiing we did.

b) Other related expressions are nowhere near as … as, not nearly as … as and nothing like as … as:

The new sports commentator is nowhere near as good as John Motson. 

This album is not nearly as good as their last one. 

• Including an adverb of degree gives added emphasis. We can make a superlative adjective stronger with by far, easily or of all. The nouns a bit, a good deal, a great deal, a little, a lot are also used in this way:

You’re by far the cleverest person in this class, you know. 

She’s easily the best dancer in the group. No one is as elegant as her.

There were a number of excellent poems entered for the competition, but the best poem of all was written by a ten-year-old boy.

Sally is a great deal younger than her brother.

• As well, we can talk about how a person or thing is changing and gaining more of a particular quality using two -er form adjectives connected by and, or more and more before an adjective. We don’t follow such comparisons with than:

The weather is getting hotter and hotter.

I’m getting more and more interested in conservation these days.

• We can also compare using a sentence with two comparatives shows that as one thing changes, another thing also changes: 

The sooner we get home, the happier I’ll be. 

The more you practice the violin, the easier it will become.

• To talk about inequality, we can use less with longer adjectives (interesting, beautiful, complicated) , but we don’t normally use less with short adjectives of one syllable (big, good, high, small). Instead we use not as … as …, or not so … as:

The second method was less complicated than the first one.

This new laptop is not as fast as my old one. I’m sorry I bought it now. (preferred to is less fast than my old one.)

NOTES: 

• After than, we often don’t repeat subject pronouns with impersonal subjects, or auxiliary verbs with passive voice verbs:

The exam results were better than predicted. (preferred to … better than people predicted.)

• We don’t normally use of before a singular name of a place or group after a superlative adjective. However, we can use of with a plural word referring to a group:

The castle is the oldest building in the city.

All the sisters are pretty, but Sarah’s the prettiest of them all.

• When a superlative adjective is followed by a noun, we normally use the:

This is the best meal I’ve had for a long time. 

• We can use a to-infinitive after a superlative adjective, with a meaning similar to a relative clause with who, which or that:

Who was the oldest person to compete in the London Marathon of 2008? (Who was the oldest person who competed …?)

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE ON COMPARISONS! 

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SOURCES:

• Cambridge University (2020). Comparison: adjectives (bigger, biggest, more interesting). Retrieved November 10th, 2020 from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/comparison-adjectives-bigger-biggest-more-interesting
• Capel, A. Sharp, W. (2013). Objective Proficiency.  Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press.
• English At Home. (2020). How to make comparisons. Retrieved November 10th, 2020 from: 
  https://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/comparisons/#:~:text=There%20are%20some%20rules%20to,change%20the%20end%20to%20%2Dier.
• English Club (2020). Superlative adjectives  Retrieved November 10th, 2020 from: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-superlative.htm